1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of recoverable land mines, and more particularly relates to an align at fire, safe and arm, and power supply (AFSAP) module with a visual safe indicator for an electronically fuzed recoverable land mine.
2. Description of the Related Art
A munition, such as a land mine, particularly one provided with an electronic target sensor or sensors as a component of its fuzing subsystem, is designed to self-destruct after the passage of a predetermined period of time, or when it reaches the end of its useful life. In such a mine, the explosive train of the safing and arming subsystem is moved in line, or the mine is armed, well in advance of detonation, or eventing, the mine's warhead. Therefore, such a mine is not safely recoverable once it has been initiated, or armed.
To minimize cost and to conserve material it is desirable that an electronically fuzed land mine not self-destruct at the end of its useful life or upon the occurrence of some other predetermined event, such as the passage of a given period of time, but rather self-neutralize so that it is safe to recover and refurbish. It is also desirable that the personnel who recover self-neutralized mines be confident that such mines are safe to recover. The probability of successfully recovering a self-neutralized mine increases if the self-neutralized mine displays a highly visible device to help locate it as well as to provide visual evidence that a mine displaying such a highly visible device is safe to recover.